Home » US business news » Lawyer Claims Boeing Will Get a “Sweetheart Plea Deal”

Lawyer Claims Boeing Will Get a “Sweetheart Plea Deal”

By Hugh Fort in US business news, posted July 1, 2024

A lawyer representing victims of the two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes says the US government is planning to offer the company a "sweetheart plea deal."

The BBC reports Paul Cassell says he received the information "directly from the Justice Department."

He said the deal includes a small fine, three years of probation, and independent safety audits.

This development follows Boeing's announcement of a deal to acquire aerospace supplier Spirit AeroSystems, aimed at improving quality and safety.

Spirit AeroSystems made the fuselage that suffered a mid-flight blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 jet in January.

This raised major widespread concerns about Boeing's standards.

Last month, US prosecutors recommended that the DoJ pursue criminal charges against Boeing.

This recommendation came after the DoJ accused Boeing of violating a 2021 settlement related to the crashes, which killed 346 people.

Mr Cassell said: "The memory of 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this."

He added the "families will strenuously object to this plea deal."

The crashes, both involving Boeing's 737 Max aircraft, occurred within six months of each other.

The first crash, involving Indonesia's Lion Air, occurred in October 2018, followed by an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019.

Both crashes were attributed to faulty flight control systems.

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A letter sent by Mr. Cassell to the DoJ last month revealed the families are fighting for prosecutions of Boeing's top executives at the time of the crashes.

They also want a fine of 24.8bn (£19.6bn) for what they termed "the deadliest corporate crime in US history."

The Justice Department has until 7 July to decide whether to revive a criminal fraud charge brought against Boeing in 2021.

"The memory of 346 innocents killed by Boeing demands more justice than this"

That charge has been dormant since Boeing acknowledged in a settlement it had misled air-safety regulators.

This was over aspects of the 737 Max and promised to implement a new compliance system to detect and prevent further fraud.

Under the 2021 agreement, Boeing agreed to pay a $2.5bn settlement.

Prosecutors agreed to ask the court to drop a criminal charge after three years if the company complied with the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement.

However, in May, the DoJ stated Boeing had breached the agreement.

It claims the company failed to "design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the US fraud laws throughout its operations."

Boeing did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment, and the Justice Department (DoJ) declined to provide a statement.

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